Trainer of Prince Will I Am, who provided her with her first Grade 1 victory in the Jamaica on Oct. 9 and is scheduled to run in the Breeders’ Cup Marathon next Friday, along with Silent Joy in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Birthplace: Calgary, Alberta, Canada Family: Single Got into racing because . . . “I have no true racing pedigree. I was a little kid in the wilds of Canada and fell in love with racing because of newspaper articles and books. Anything on Ruffian, Secretariat, Man o’ War, Seabiscuit, Seattle Slew, Alydar, Affirmed. They all became instant idols of mine.” You didn’t exactly take a straight path to the track. You have an extensive academic background: “I received a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. My father was a professor of biochemistry. Sometimes we follow in footsteps because it seems obvious and easy. I thought I’d be a scientist and an MD. My mother was a lawyer; that didn’t appeal to me so much because I don’t like to argue. I left the University of Saskatchewan to get my Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky. Then I went to Johns Hopkins to do my post-doctorate work. I was on the junior faculty there. I was there for four years, until 2001. I worked in environmental science, neuroscience, neurology, and pediatrics.” What were some of your responsibilities? “Research dealing with patients. I looked at exposure in utero and what happens to kids exposed to lead, PCBs, heavy metals. How does that affect kids and learning? How does that impact geriatric disability? Diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, we don’t have a good genetic understanding of them. A lot of what happens to older people in dementia is not well characterized. There’s strong evidence it’s exposure during childhood, when the brain is forming.” DRF WEEKEND: Trainer Al Stall's moment of truth, handicapping roundups MORE: Slots revenue promises revival for New York breeders And then you ran off and joined the circus of the racetrack? “I had been riding since I was 2. My father would attach a shank to a Shetland pony and lead me around for hours in Alberta. I’ve ridden ever since − jumpers, three-day, dressage, vaulting. In 2000 and 2001 while at Johns Hopkins, I was spending a lot of time thinking about and trying to be with my two event horses and my burro. It was such an enormous effort to get up at 4 in the morning, clean stalls, ride both horses, get everything done, and go to work. Every time I would sit down in front of a computer I was looking up things on horses. I recognized that all my life I was trying to figure out how to spend time with horses. I’m a good goal-setter. But sometimes you sort of do that without thinking of what makes you happy. I didn’t have any obligations. I didn’t have anybody to answer to. I’d rather be happy than not happy. So I packed up and went to Kentucky, where I had a few friends and a few connections. I knew if I didn’t go then, I wouldn’t do it until I was retired, and I probably wouldn’t have a lot of time to do a lot of galloping when I was 65.” Who did you work for before going out on your own? “I walked onto the backstretch at the old Rice Road area of Keeneland to see if anyone needed an exercise rider. Two female trainers, Alice Cohn and Mary Jo Lohmeier, decided to take a chance on me. George Arnold Sr., Rusty’s father, was one of the few to put me on a horse on the racetrack. At the time I had a position at the Gluck Equine Research Institute, but as things started to get busier for me at the track, I knew I was dropping the ball, so I resigned that position. I worked at Diamond A for Ted and Mac Carr. I went to New Orleans for the winter with Andrew McKeever. I took a job with Dallas Stewart, and then Chris Speckert offered me a job as an assistant and a rider. He worked out a trade to send me to Michael Stoute for a short time, which was a great experience. Then I was an assistant to Becky Maker. And then Tristan Barry, Todd Pletcher’s assistant, hired me to work with the string they had at Saratoga. I started on May 7, 2003. The first horse on my list was listed as ‘Goulash 01.’ That turned out to be Ashado.” You had a serious accident in March 2007 at Palm Beach Downs that altered your career: “A filly I was riding was fresh coming off the track. She reared up, lost her balance, and fell over. I couldn’t get my right leg out of the saddle. She fell over and landed on my right knee. It was dislocated. The only thing attaching the kneecap to the bottom and top part of my leg was a tendon. And I had broken a piece of my tibia. An MRI suggested that a major artery in the back of the knee was crushed, and there was no blood supply. They were talking about amputating. My parents had passed away, and I had no family. I was on a lot of painkillers. I wasn’t 100 percent cognitive. They handed me a clipboard with papers to sign, but fortunately, my friend Kim Valerio was there and said, ‘No, no, no.’ She made them get a second opinion. I owe the salvation of my lower leg to Kim. An angiogram said there was enough blood supply to hold off amputating. The doctors said they didn’t think I would walk, and I’d definitely never ride. I wanted to make sure they were wrong. It was a nine-month recovery.” And after that, you decided to go out on your own? “I had been thinking of it before, but that forced my hand. It was scary. I hadn’t been active. Nine months away from this sport makes you feel really cold. I started out with three horses. I have 20 now. I still ride a couple here and there.” How gratifying was it to win your first Grade 1 with Prince Will I Am? “Every win means the world at this point, but I will say the implications of the kind of race that was didn’t really hit me until later. I had a plan with owner Susie Atkins, who has been one of the most supportive people I have ever been around. We talk about options, where we want to go. I had posed the question about trying to get to the Breeders’ Cup with her when we were at Saratoga. We mapped out a plan to get to the Jamaica or the Hawthorne Derby. The Jamaica ended up being the right place for him.” You’ve been associated with Breeders’ Cup winners before, like Ashado. Does that help you prepare for the challenges of now having Breeders’ Cup starters of your own as a trainer? “Of all the things Todd did for me, which are unfathomable and uncountable, the most significant benefit was giving me the opportunity to be around horses of that caliber. When you stumble upon one like that, you recognize and realize it because of the quality of the horses you’ve been around before. It’s not quantifiable, and it’s hard to describe, but you recognize it from the work that came before. Before we ran Prince at Saratoga and then the Jamaica, we knew we were headed in the right direction because of what those horses taught us before. The nervous parts are the decisions made the last couple of months. The walking over part is the easy part. The closer you get to the exam, to the finals, you better be prepared before the test. You’re not going to learn the material the night before.” Greatest moment of career? “The most meaningful win was with Prince in the Jamaica. But there’s so many firsts when you’re starting out. The first win, first allowance, first stake, first win at a big track, the first win at Saratoga, and the first win at Belmont, which happened to be the Jamaica. Even winning my first race at Keeneland, which was with a claimer. That was the first track I stepped on, so to win there was everything.” Best horse seen? “The recruiters from UK knew I was horse crazy and took me to see Secretariat at Claiborne. That sealed the deal.” Hobbies? “I didn’t know we were allowed hobbies in this business! I used to have some. I used to run track. I love watching the Olympics. I’m an avid reader, and I love music. But there’s no time. Put ‘sleep.’ ” Future ambitions? “I’m not sure there’s any trainer you could look in the eye and they’d say they don’t want to win the Kentucky Derby. It’s hard not to want that.”